Knowledge check: a multiple choice question in a Document that can help students prepare for, or check their understanding of the content.
Test: a set of questions of various types, such as multiple choice or calculation questions. You can also create Question banks, to easily reuse questions. Tests can help students remember and practice content and help you identify misunderstandings or questions students may have or understand whether they have achieved some of the learning objectives. Tests can also be used for summative assessment.
Journal: a private space for students to reflect on the course, a project or their learning, either periodically or when an activity ends.
Form: a survey which can contain multiple choice, open ended and other types of questions. It can help you learn students’ questions about a topic, get feedback on sections of the course or see how students’ confidence develops.
Discussion: a space where students can discuss with each other a topic you suggest.
Conversation: a space where students can discuss or ask questions about a specific resource or activity.
Activities and interactive resources from other recommended tools
You can add activities and interactive resources from other recommended tools too. Examples include:
H5P enables you to easily create a variety of interactive resources, such as short quizzes for students to practice what they learned or branching scenarios to help them develop their critical and decision-making skills.
Padlet offers a colourful online board for posting comments, images, links, polls and recordings. It can be used for brainstorming, organising and sharing resources, as well as providing a first point of social contact for students or space for them to ask questions about a topic. It also allows instructors to create breakout links for groupwork so that each group can only access one portion of the Padlet.
Mentimeter is polling software that can be used to create live or asynchronous polls, quizzes, word clouds and activities. These can be embedded in Blackboard.
The recommended ways to add interactivity depend on the type, tool and location within the course.
Learning modules and Folders
You can add resources to Learning modules and Folders by opening them, going to the location you would like to add an activity and:
For Blackboard tools, such as Journals, Tests, and Forms, click + > Create then select the name of the tool.
For external tools integrated with Blackboard, such as H5P and Padlet, click + > Course Tools. You don’t have to know which tools are included in this category, you can browse them in the Course Tools list that appears when you select.
For other external publicly available resources, click + > Create > Web Link, add the URL and a meaningful Display Name and Description.
Documents
You can add resources to a Document by opening it, going to the location you would like to add an activity and:
To link to publicly available resources, copy the link, write descriptive text within a Content block in your Document, select it, click the Link icon, paste the link you copied and Save. Please ensure the websites the link goes to is secure.
You may be able to include resources from external tools integrated with Blackboard via + > Course Tools within the text editor, but please note that this doesn’t work well for all tools, so you may need to add them in a different way described above.
This release has new or updated features in the following areas:
Instructional design;
Communication and collaboration;
Tests & Assignments;
Gradebook.
These improvements impact instructors, students, and administrators. Below you’ll find our top highlights, and more detail on the most relevant updates.
Top Highlights
Text-based columns in the Gradebook
Instructors can now create custom text-based columns in the Gradebook, giving them the ability to record information for an assessment, such as performance code, group membership, and tutoring information.
Instructors can:
Create text-based columns via the Add workflow in both the grid view and Markable Items page;
Name the column, control student visibility, and add a description;
Add and edit text information for a specific student using an inline edit workflow.
Text-based columns exclude the following:
Points values (automatically set to 0 points)
Due dates
Categories
Gradebook calculations and related calculation UIs
Content in text-based columns auto-posts and supports sorting functionality within the Gradebook grid view. Instructors can also download and upload text-based columns using the Gradebook’s upload/download function.
Image 1: Instructors can select Add Text Item to create a text-based column.Image 2: Instructors can enter column name, set visibility for students, and enter a description for the text-based column.
Enhancements to discussions
Several updates have been made to Discussions to improve the user experience.
Updated wording: discussion contributions, once called “responses” and “replies”, are now called “posts” and “replies”.
Improved input field text: Previously, the text within the input field was “Type a response.” The text is now “Post a response to the discussion.”
Avatar update: User avatars have been removed from beside the input field to increase the area for adding content.
Image 1. Previous view of a Discussion input field.Image 2. Updated view: the Respond button is now labelled Post. There’s no avatar beside the input field and the text within the field instructs users to post a response.
Please see the Release notes for further information.
Full details on other updates in this release can be found on these Blackboard pages.
Further help and support
For more guidance on using Blackboard Ultra please explore this site Ultra Essential Guidance via the site menu on the right.
Students can view an Ultra orientation and advice on using Ultra from their Help for Students sections (or equivalent) in your Blackboard course.
Conversations in Blackboard are forums which can be enabled on a specific item in your course. Unlike Discussions they cannot be graded. Conversations can be used to streamline queries from students, for example by enabling it for a Document with assessment details or to facilitate a discussion in the context of a particular learning resource, for example a research paper, case study or video.
Discussions or Conversations – which one to choose?
There are two essential questions in making a choice between these two tools:
Is this activity graded? If yes, the choice is Discussions.
Is this activity related to a particular resource in your unit, such as a specific assignment, paper you uploaded or a lecture recording? If yes you may want to use Conversations. If not, Discussions may be the better choice, particularly that Discussions have its own tab on the top menu of your unit, making it easier for students to navigate to them.
You can enable Conversations for these content items:
Documents
Assignments
Tests
Course Tools content and activities (such as Re/Play, Turnitin or Padlet)
To switch on Conversations, click on the three dots More Options icon next to an item and choose Edit. Find the cog icon in the right top corner of the page, click on it and tick the Allow class conversations option.
Use Conversations
Once you’ve enabled conversations, go to the conversation icon in the top right corner of the page.
You can type your response, reply to other users and see who contributed to the conversation by looking under Engagement on the right.
You can return to a Conversation by either opening the item and clicking on the Conversation icon as described above, or by clicking on the three dots More Options icon next to the item and choosing Conversation.
It is not possible to follow Conversations but new posts will be flagged by a purple bubble next to the item.
Once you open the Conversation, new posts will also be highlighted with a purple NEW label.
This checklist outlines good practices and practical steps that can help you ensure your Blackboard unit course is ready for the start of term. You can click on each item to see the rationale and, where needed, links to relevant resources and instructions.
Course Structure
The structure of my course follows the faculty template.
Why? This ensures that all units include the minimum required content, and that their layouts are easy to navigate and consistent across all the units that a student is taking.
See the template information included in the Guidance and Support for Staff section of your unit.
I populated the placeholder items in the different sections of my course and provided students with all essential information.
In Unit Introduction and Resources, students should be able to find:
Unit aims and learning outcomes.
Links to relevant programme/school information.
Key contacts and ways of communicating.
Guidance on how they are expected to engage with the Ultra course.
In Unit Assessment, students should be able to find:
Instructions on how to submit (a link to instructions for standard submission types will be provided in all units but additional details may be needed if a different submission type is used).
Information on how and when students can access their feedback.
Why? By providing this information you not only minimise the administrative workload related to student queries but also support student competency, self-regulation and increase their chances of success.
See the template information included in the Guidance and Support for Staff section of your course.
There is no empty or outdated content in my course.
Why? This means students won’t be confused or misinformed by incorrect or missing information. This is usually an issue when content was copied over from last year’s unit course.
Each section and item has a clear and descriptive title and a helpful description (if applicable).
Why? Clearly labelling each item can help students navigate your course more easily and support them in understanding the purpose of the content shared. The course search uses item titles to help students locate content.
All content is within a Learning Module, Folder or Document
Why? To maintain consistency and ease of navigation, files and other resources should be organised in Blackboard’s containers, and not be available at the top level of the course.
Teaching and Learning materials
I have used Ally to ensure the learning content is accessible.
A clearly stated rationale for the activity, consistent with the intended learning outcomes.
Instructions on how to engage in the activity and what level of engagement is expected.
Prompts and exemplars where required.
Why? This helps students to feel competent in engaging with the activities you set up, which means they are more likely to meet the activity’s intended learning outcomes.
The appropriate assessment submission types and settings have been configured with or by my school admin team.
Why? The different submission types and settings available can support the pedagogical design of your assessment. Assessment configuration is often bespoke to individual faculty or school requirements.
Why? Seeing your photo and learning how to pronounce your name can make the interactions (especially initial ones) easier.
See the Profile guide on Blackboard support webpages.
I did not delete, rename or otherwise modify the Assessment, submission and feedback folder.
Why? This folder is essential for the integration between SITS and Blackboard used for submission points creation and marks transfer. Any changes to the folder will result in the integration not working.
See the How to Use this folder document in the Assessment, submission and feedback folder in your course.
I checked the course using student preview.
Why? Some content will display differently to students, so we recommend checking using student preview to view the course as a student.
The content students need to see is visible to them.
Why? Some content in your course may be hidden by default. Once you’ve populated, created and checked it, you will need to make the content students need to see visible to them.
Only administrators with the Marks Extractor role in Blackboard can extract marks.
Navigate to the Blackboard course you wish to extract grades from.
On the Content tab, under Details and Actions in the right-hand menu, scroll down to Course tools and click on View course and institution tools.
From the list of tools, select Marks extract to SITS. This will launch the Marks Approval Tool LTI, which sends the marks from Blackboard to eVision (SITS). It can take a few moments to load.
From the list, select the unit code and course name you want to extract marks for by clicking on the box to the left of the Course ID. The box will turn green and a tick will appear.
Click on Mark column approval and transfer.
Select the assignment/column name you wish to extract, again clicking on the box to the left of the name.
Click Mark approval and transfer. In the next screen you can either:
Search for specific students you want to extract marks for by entering their name details into the search bar. Once you have found the student(s), select them by clicking on the box to the left of their details.
Click the box at the top of the list of students to select all of the students in the list with submissions.
You can select the number of items displayed to suit your preferences and workflow, particularly helpful when working with larger cohorts.
Click on Extract marks.
Always drill down until you can see your students’ names and the Mark Column name to ensure you’re viewing the correct data.
We are currently updating our guidance for Ultra and you can already find a variety of new or updated guides on our website, including in Blackboard, Re/Play, etc. We also have a Blackboard screencasts collection of short videos showing you how to do a variety of tasks in Blackboard Ultra.
In this page, we have collected some of these guides to help you get started with learning Ultra and setting up your courses for the next academic year.
Get familiar with Ultra
See what a Blackboard Ultra course looks like, as well as some differences in terminology compared to Blackboard Original which was used until recently. You can find your courses in the same way as before, but see how to distinguish between Ultra and Original courses.
See how to organise your course using Learning Modules, Folders and Documents and how to keep it clear and consistent with the help of the included template. Learn how to add content and activities like Re/Play videos and knowledge checks, how to improve accessibility, as well as how to check your course from a student’s perspective and base release of content on specific criteria.
See how enrolments of students, staff and external users are managed, how you can add a colleague to your course and how to split students into Groups for activities, assessment or content release.
See the various ways in which you can communicate with students, enable them to discuss with you and each other, as well as view their engagement with your course.
Progress Tracking can help your students monitor their progression through the course. Both you and the student can see what content they reviewed, which can help you with keeping track of engagement and them with developing competency as a self-directed learner.
By default, Progress Tracking is turned on in all the unit courses. You can check it by clicking on Course Settings top-right of the page and scrolling down to locate it in the page that opens.
Students will be able to mark items as complete and see a progress bar for learning modules. Each resource and activity such as Documents, Discussions and Links will count as one item on the progress bar.
You can see analytics for Progress Tracking by clicking on the three dots More Options icon next to an item and choosing Student Progress.
From there, you can also see an overview of each student’s progress with all the content in the course by clicking on a student’s name.
The same ‘Progress’ view can be accessed via the Gradebook by clicking on the Gradebook tab on the top menu, choosing a student and going to the Progress tab.
The University timetabling system Syllabus+ automatically creates lecture and seminar groups in each course and assigns all students to them. These groups have names beginning with {S}. Group membership can’t be changed in Blackboard. Any changes will revert back to the original overnight.
Use groups
Blackboard Groups can be used for multiple tasks, some in combination with other tools. For example, you can use Groups to:
Set a Discussion for a group to collaborate on their project.
Send specific information to targeted groups of students via a Message.
Set group submissions in Blackboard Assignments.
Arrange allocated marking in Blackboard Assignments, Blackboard Tests, or Turnitin.
The Groups tab is available on the top menu of your course. Go to this tab for all group management tasks, such as creating new groups, reviewing existing groups, or importing groups you have prepared offline.
Create new groups
All groups are created as a part of a Group Set, even if you only need to make a single group.
To create a new group set, click New Group Set top right of the page. This will take you to a new screen, displaying all of the available students on your unit as a pool under Unassigned Students. First, add a name for your set and then choose one of the following options:
Custom: which requires you manually add users to each group. Use this option if you know you need specific students in specific groups.
Randomly assigned: which will randomly assign students to the groups you create, distributing their numbers as evenly as possible. Use this option if it doesn’t matter which students are in which groups, as it is much faster.
Self-enrolment: which provides students with the option to enrol themselves into a course group. Use this option if you want students to self-organise into groups of their own choosing.
If you have already created other group sets, you will also be able to Reuse these groups via this menu. This will create a copy of the existing group set, including the number of groups, the name of each group, and the distribution of students.
Group Visibility
After creating a group set, you can set its visibility to students. By default, all group sets are set to Hidden from students. To adjust this, select Hidden from students in the top-right corner of the screen.
Groups will need to be Visible to students if you are:
Creating groups for a group submission.
Creating self-enrolment groups.
Groups should be set to Hidden from students if you are:
Using groups to manage late submissions, penalties, or any accommodations such as Alternative Exam Arrangements (AEAs).
Using groups to manage distributed marking.
Create custom groups
Custom groupscan be created in one of two ways.
The most efficient approach is to create groups as you allocate students to them. To do this, select each user you want to add to a group from the pool of unassigned students, highlighting their details in black, then click on the three dots in one of the user’s boxes and create a new group with the users you selected.
Once you have selected all of the students you wish to add to specific group, select the three dots icon in one of the user’s boxes and select + Create a new group. All students you had clicked will then be added to this group and removed from the pool of students available to allocate.
Alternatively, you can create the groups first and then allocate students to them. To do this, scroll to the bottom of the screen, beneath the pool of unassigned students, and locate the purple plus icon.
Once you have created each group, you will then need to allocate students to them by highlighting the students you want to add, clicking the three dot icon on one of their records, and then selecting the group you want to add them to from the drop-down options that appear.
Create randomly assigned groups
For randomly assigned groups, you need to choose how many groups you would like to create using the Number of groups drop-down. Students will then be distributed relatively equally amongst those groups, depending on the number of students in the course. If you want specific students to be excluded or included in groups, these can be changed later.
Create self-enrolment groups
To create self-enrolment groups, you first need to make the group set visible to students then specify when students can start to enrol themselves, when enrolment ends, the maximum number of members per group and the number of groups overall. You can also provide a description for students in the box provided.
Manage Groups
After you have created a group set, the groups themselves, and either allocated students or enabled them to self-enrol, you can move students between or out of groups, and delete specific groups or entire group sets.
To move students between groups within a set, or to remove them from all groups, enter the group set and locate the student you wish to move. Click the three-dot icon on their record to open the drop-down menu and then choose either:
The group you wish to move them to from the options available.
– Unassign to remove them from all groups within the set.
+ Create a new group to create another group with this student within it.
To delete individual groups, enter the group set and find the group you want to delete. Click the three-dot icon in the top-right of the group (next to the group’s title) and select Delete group.
To delete an entire group set, find the set you want to delete from the list of sets in the Groups tab. Click the three-dot icon in the top-right of the set’s details and then select Delete.
Export group sets
To export a group set, enter the set and select the export button in the top-right corner of the screen.
Enter a group set and click on the export or import buttons in the right top corner to see instructions and download the csv file template.
This will open a settings section on the right of the screen. If you have previously created exportable files for this group set, you can re-export these files in the Export tab. If you need to create files to export, either because you have not yet done so or because you have made changes to the groups or the set since the last export, you can do this in the Create tab. Here, you can select:
Group sets only to export a file detailing the groups within the set.
Members only to export a file detailing the members within each group and which group they are allocated to.
You can select either one or both of these. In most instances, exporting both will give you the greatest detail, but if you are just looking to manage membership offline, you will only need the Members only option.
Please note: Groups without members will not show up in exported files. If you wish to export a blank set for offline management, first add one member to each group, export and then delete this member from the group in the spreadsheet.
Import groups, sets and members
To import a group set, select Import Group Set from within the Groups tab. You will be able to download a template for uploading group sets, demonstrating the appropriate formatting requirements.
To import groups or group memberships, enter the group set you want to import to and select the import icon in the top-right corner.
This will open a panel on the right-hand side of the screen. Choose between Create groups and Assign members. Both provide a template document you can download to provide a guide for formatting an uploaded .csv.
Students’ experience
If they are set as visible, students can see the groups they belong to by going to the Groups tab in their unit:
If you create a self-enrolment group, students will get a pop-up notification when entering their unit asking them to enrol. Students will be able to message their groups (if this was enabled in Messages options) and take part in any activities which you set up for them.
While you can view courses as a student by using Student Preview, if you want to thoroughly test an activity, such as online submission, it is better to use a Test Student account instead. You can set up, add and use a Test Student as follows:
Setting up a Test Student account
If you already have a Test Student account, see how to add it to to your course and use it. You will only require one Test Student account for all of your courses and organisations.
If you don’t have a Test Student account, please email digital-education@bristol.ac.uk, including the subject line “Test Student Account Request” and provide your Blackboard username and the purpose for your having a Test Student account.
Please make requests for Test Student accounts ahead of their needing to be used. Whilst the DEO makes every effort to provide these accounts quickly, this is not an instantaneous request and may be further delayed in busy periods.
You will receive an email that confirms the account details, including the username and password.
Once you have a Test Student account:
Either open a private or incognito tab in your current browser or open another browser.
Navigate to the Blackboard login page in this private/new tab and click Guest Login.
Enter your Test Student’s username and the password provided by the DEO.
Click on the profile tab on the left-hand side of the screen. This will be denoted by your Test Student’s name (usually Your First Name Test[Your Initials]).
Click on Update External Account Password.
In the panel that opens:
Follow on screen instructions to update your password.
Store your new Test Student account password securely, or use a password that is easy for you to remember.
This release has new or updated features in the following areas:
Instructional design;
Communication and collaboration;
Gradebook;
Learner progression and personalised experience;
Upgrade to Ultra.
These improvements impact instructors, students, and administrators. Below you’ll find our top highlights, and more detail on the most relevant updates.
Top Highlights
Indicator if student has or has not reviewed feedback
In the Gradebook, instructors can now see whether or not students have reviewed assessment feedback. An indicator on the student Overview page displays whether a student has reviewed the feedback for a given assessment.
When a mark is posted, a label shows Not reviewed with the existing Completed label in the Status column. When the student reviews the feedback, the status updates to Reviewed with a review timestamp.
Image 1. Instructor Gradebook view has Reviewed and Not Reviewed labels in the Status column.
Replace Feedback column with actionable Results column in student Gradebook
To encourage students to review their submitted assessments in the Gradebook:
A new Results column replaces the Feedback column
A View button in the Results column replaces the Feedback column’s purple feedback icon
When a mark is posted and the new mark indicator (purple circle) is turned on, the View button displays for the assessment.
Image 1. The previous view of the student Gradebook included a Feedback column with a feedback icon and new grade indicator when feedback was available for review.Image 2. The new view of the student Gradebook includes an actionable Results column with the new grade indicator turning off after the student views the feedback.
Please see the Release notes for further information.
